I had a long chat today with a senior executive at Cruisair. If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you are probably aware that I’ve been fighting with my air conditioning system from the beginning.
The call was triggered as a result of an email I received from a Nordhavn buyer currently putting together his options list for a new Nordhavn. He mentioned that he was worried about selecting Cruisair because of all my whining. I wrote back to say that I do not believe my problems are a reflection on Cruisair, and that I would not rule out Cruisair. I gave him a whole laundry list of things that happened which caused my problem, and that I feel my problem is unique to my boat. I even went on to say that Nordhavn’s opinion is that if I’ll just stop moving the boat long enough for them to get a technician on board they can probably solve my problems in an afternoon. I suspect Nordhavn is right, but had made the decision to dump my current A/C chillers anyhow.
Apparently my email didn’t relieve this gentleman’s anxieties, and he raised the issue with Cruisair today, resulting in a call from one of their haunchos to me.
All of which is a good thing. I like being able to speak with decision makers at a company, and the guy today was a really sharp, and straight shooting guy (Ben Haynes, ben.haynes @ dometicusa.com)
Immediately during our call Mr. Haynes corrected me on something very important: I had thought I had a new model chiller, and that the root of my problem was a flawed chiller. In actuality, he said that the chiller I have has been a success for them, with over 1,000 installed in boats, and no problems. We discussed the problems I’ve had, and he feels that the chillers I have should be fine, and that Nordhavn is probably right that the problem can probably be corrected by some simple tweaking to my electrical system.
I explained why I wanted to swap to soft start chillers, and he argued for giving him a chance to study my boat before making a change.
Based on our call today, I am now thinking that perhaps I should give my current chillers another try. My only fear is that between Cruisair and Nordhavn they’ll do some tweaking, and all will be fine here in Seattle – but as soon as I get someplace really warm I’ll have a mess again. I’m very open to any solution, especially solutions that don’t cost any money — but, I need to know it is really fixed, because once we leave on our circumnavigation, it will be a REAL pain in the tail getting the system fixed.
-Ken W
The call was triggered as a result of an email I received from a Nordhavn buyer currently putting together his options list for a new Nordhavn. He mentioned that he was worried about selecting Cruisair because of all my whining. I wrote back to say that I do not believe my problems are a reflection on Cruisair, and that I would not rule out Cruisair. I gave him a whole laundry list of things that happened which caused my problem, and that I feel my problem is unique to my boat. I even went on to say that Nordhavn’s opinion is that if I’ll just stop moving the boat long enough for them to get a technician on board they can probably solve my problems in an afternoon. I suspect Nordhavn is right, but had made the decision to dump my current A/C chillers anyhow.
Apparently my email didn’t relieve this gentleman’s anxieties, and he raised the issue with Cruisair today, resulting in a call from one of their haunchos to me.
All of which is a good thing. I like being able to speak with decision makers at a company, and the guy today was a really sharp, and straight shooting guy (Ben Haynes, ben.haynes @ dometicusa.com)
Immediately during our call Mr. Haynes corrected me on something very important: I had thought I had a new model chiller, and that the root of my problem was a flawed chiller. In actuality, he said that the chiller I have has been a success for them, with over 1,000 installed in boats, and no problems. We discussed the problems I’ve had, and he feels that the chillers I have should be fine, and that Nordhavn is probably right that the problem can probably be corrected by some simple tweaking to my electrical system.
I explained why I wanted to swap to soft start chillers, and he argued for giving him a chance to study my boat before making a change.
Based on our call today, I am now thinking that perhaps I should give my current chillers another try. My only fear is that between Cruisair and Nordhavn they’ll do some tweaking, and all will be fine here in Seattle – but as soon as I get someplace really warm I’ll have a mess again. I’m very open to any solution, especially solutions that don’t cost any money — but, I need to know it is really fixed, because once we leave on our circumnavigation, it will be a REAL pain in the tail getting the system fixed.
-Ken W